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The U.S. South Pacific Scholarship Program, authorized by the U.S. Congress and funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State, is a competitive, merit-based scholarship program that provides opportunities for Master’s and Bachelor’s degree study at the University of Hawai‘i in fields that are directly relevant to the development needs of Pacific island countries. Applications are due February 1, 2019 for study beginning August 2019. Visit our website for complete details.

The East-West Center Research Program engages the research and policy communities in the US and the Asia Pacific on issues of common concern. The goal is to provide more complete knowledge and deeper understanding of the environments, societies, economies, and governments of the Asia Pacific region.

The East-West Center Research Program Noon Seminar Series seeks to disseminate research and policy finding on environmental, social, economic, political, and international relations issues in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. The Noon Seminar Series invites scholars, advocates, and government officials from throughout the U.S., Asia and the Pacific to share their findings with planners, academics, policymakers, regional specialists, the media, and the general public through the series.

The Professional Development Program conducts all of the East-West Center’s short to medium-term capacity-building, leadership training, professional exchanges, career development, and high-level dialogue activities.

East-West Seminars offers short-term dialogue, field study, travel and exchange opportunities for working professionals in politics, government, civil society, business and the media who are in positions to affect policy, shape public opinion and influence change.

The East-West Center’s AsiaPacificEd Program for Schools supports the Center’s mission by providing global learning and exchange opportunities for educators and students in the United States and in the Asia Pacific region.

The Asia Pacific Higher Education Research Partnership is a membership organization consisting of some twenty-five universities, ministries of education and quality assurance entities joined together to identify, explore and conduct research on key issues of higher education change within the Asia Pacific

A joint program of the East-West Center and the University of Hawai’i, ASDP offers a variety of content-focused faculty and institutional development programs and activities centered around summer residential institutes, field seminars in Asia, workshops on the U.S. mainland, and an annual academic…

PIDP's Pacific Islands Tourism Professional Fellows Program will bring two cohorts of tourism industry professionals from the Pacific Islands to Honolulu, Hawai‘i for intensive six-week programs that build significant new capacity and facilitate enduring professional bonds between industry leaders in the United States and the Pacific Islands.

Pacific Islands Report is a nonprofit news publication of the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Offered as a free service to readers around the world, PIR provides an edited digest of news, commentary and analysis from across the Pacific region, Monday through Friday.

This June, the Polynesian voyaging canoe Hōkūle‘a completes its three-year Mālama Honua Worldwide voyage to promote global sustainability. With its return, 32 years after it set sail from Hawai‘i on its first voyage, thoughts turn to the founders of the Polynesian Voyaging Society and others who helped ignite the revival of traditional, non-instrument voyaging in the Pacific. After the founding of the Polynesian Voyaging Society in Hawai‘i in the early 1970s, the East-West Center provided it support as part of the Center’s mandate from the US Congress to facilitate “cultural and technical interchange between East and West.” The Center, through its deep networks in the then-UN Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, was able to identify the traditional navigator necessary for the project, and host him in Honolulu as a “special fellow.”

CSPA is a bipartisan educational certificate program, which aims to equip Congressional staffers with greater knowledge of U.S.-Indo-Pacific policy in order to better understand America’s role in and engagement with this dynamic region and the policy implications that will directly engage Congress.

The East-West Center Association (EWCA) is an international network of professionals who have a past affiliation with the East-West Center. There are no membership fees to participate in the EWCA. The Association is led by an international Executive Board representing the various professions, regions, and decades of its members. Collectively, they are contributing to global understanding, building an Asia Pacific community, and making a world of difference.

The East-West Center Association (EWCA) is an international network of professionals who have a past affiliation with the East-West Center. There are no membership fees to participate in the EWCA. The Association is led by an international Executive Board representing the various professions, regions, and decades of its members. Collectively, they are contributing to global understanding, building an Asia Pacific community, and making a world of difference.

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(Click to enlarge) From left to right, Dr. Seongho Sheen and Dr. Satu Limaye discuss South Korea's views on multilateralism in Northeast Asia.

A South Korean Perspective of Multilateralism in Northeast Asia

(Washington D.C.) June 23–South Korea continues to experience great economic success, is involved in major international and regional institutions and is now poised to take on a greater leadership role. President Lee Myung-bak is eager to promote a new South Korean foreign policy which features a multi-layered global approach and addresses security and non-security issues. As the world becomes increasingly globalized, South Korea is realizing the importance of simultaneously making contributions to the international system, engaging the entire Asian region and playing a leadership role in Northeast Asia. Dr. Seongho Sheen, visiting fellow, East-West Center in Washington, discussed the possibility of increasing South Korean influence through the comprehensive “New Asia Initiative.”

The end of the Cold War was an awakening moment for South Korean foreign policy. Relations that had chilled during this period were re-established and it became a national goal to become more internationally-aware. Narrowing in focus, South Korea also began to focus on Asian regionalism and building a Northeast Asian community under the Kim and Roh administrations. However, momentum for such initiatives was lost as the country began to focus on re-engagement with North Korea from the late 1990s to 2008. Current president Lee’s “New Asia Initiative” seeks to combine the international, regional and sub-regional approaches into one multilayered initiative so that a diverse range of new and old challenges can be met.

Dr. Sheen noted that President Lee’s ambitious goals included promoting peace on the Korean peninsula, prosperity in Asia and global justice. To achieve these goals in Northeast Asia, he explained that the Lee administration would continue to maintain its strong alliance with the United States, while bolstering its strategic partnerships with other key countries such as China and Russia. South Korea would also continue to participate in the trilateral summit with China and Japan and the Six Party Talks.

South Korea is also attempting to broaden its cooperation with the other parts of Asia, even reaching out to South and Central Asia. Dr. Sheen noted that there has been an increased willingness for the Republic of Korea (ROK) to contribute to the dialogues in the existing regional institutions such as the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and the East Asia Summit (EAS). While regional initiatives have been more economic in nature, the ROK is becoming more involved in discussions on climate change, terrorism, non-proliferation and energy security.

Additionally, South Korea believes that there is much it can contribute to the global framework and has become involved in various international peacekeeping, anti-terrorism and anti-piracy initiatives. The Lee administration is marketing ROK soft power, South Korea’s potential to become an economic hub for FTAs and its reputation as an “honest broker” in promoting Asian interests. Dr. Sheen explained that Lee may be successful in some of these campaigns but that there are limitations as well. He argued that the “New Asia Initiative” is comprehensive but does not yet have a clear vision. South Korean initiatives may also be challenged by South Korea’s relatively-small economic size, the possibility of future economic instability, changing leadership, a lack of domestic support and the ever-lingering North Korean issue. Dr. Sheen believes that if the North Korean issue can be solved multilaterally through the Six Party Talks, there is an opportunity for South Korea to develop a key leadership role in what may become a regional organization.

While ROK foreign policy initiatives are diversifying, the composition of the country’s citizenship is diversifying as well. There are now one million foreign workers in South Korea; many are from Southeast Asia. Dr. Sheen explained that the combination of foreign workers and their families living within the country and the growth of inter-racial marriages is literally changing the face of South Korea. He argued that the ROK government would continue to accommodate foreigners and citizens’ changing interests because he viewed this as an opportunity for South Korea to prove that it is a cosmopolitan country with a modern mind-set.

Seongho Sheen is an associate professor at the Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul National University and is currently a visiting fellow at the East West Center in Washington. Formerly, he was a fellow at the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies (CNAPS) with the Brookings Institution, an assistant research professor at Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS), Honolulu, Hawaii and a research fellow at the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis (IFPA), Cambridge, Massachusetts. Dr. Sheen’s main research interests include international security, U.S. foreign policy, Northeast Asian politics and the Korean peninsula. Currently, his research focuses on rapid demographic changes in Northeast Asia and their implications for security and geo-politics in the region, as well as the US and nuclear politics in Northeast Asia. Dr. Sheen received his Ph.D. and M.A. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University and his B.A. from Seoul National University.